Australia

Emirates Investments Group is looking to buy food and agricultural assets in Australia and New Zealand as global demand climbs, CEO Raza Jafar said.

In an era when many countries are starting to worry about food security, foreign agribusiness might buy into the rural water market here in Australia and use permanent water holdings to dictate how our farmland should be used.

Galtere, a New York fund manager, said it was raising $1 billion to invest in production facilities for agricultural commodities -- including arable farmlands in countries such as Australia, Brazil and Uruguay -- that it planned to later sell or list publicly.

An inquiry into food production in Australia has recommended an audit of foreign-owned agricultural land and water

Australian Liberal senator Bill Heffernan warns that sovereign wealth funds need to be watched because some were "already acquiring other sovereigns' wealth to protect their own food security tasks".

Macquarie Group's agricultural division has launched a new cropping fund that will buy large-scale grain properties in Australia and Brazil.

Australia's opposition leader Tony Abbott said his Liberal-National coalition of center-right parties could revise the country's foreign investment laws if it wins power in the Aug. 21 general election.

LABOR has demanded the Coalition back foreign investment in the farm sector after it said he would be prepared to limit foreign purchases.

The Federal Opposition is supporting a call for a national register of foreign purchases of land and water in rural Australia.

The Greens have called for a national register of foreign purchases of land and water in Australia.

New Zealand's Green Party has drafted a bill seeking to stop overseas buyers snapping up large tracts of NZ land. Australian farmers also fear they may have trouble coping with future food and water demands if foreign interests snap up too many of the nation's agricultural resources.

Critics say Australia's Labor party has failed to come to grips with country's future food security, including the acquisition of domestic farmland by foreign investors